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Help documentation is accessible from within the onboarding flow

ab-002368 · saas-onboarding.onboarding-ux.help-accessible-during-onboarding
Severity: lowactive

Why it matters

Users who get stuck during onboarding and cannot find help in-context either email support (expensive for you, slow for them) or give up entirely. The user-experience taxon treats contextual help access as onboarding-tier support, not a polish item: a "Need help?" link in the corner of the signup screen, a tooltip on a confusing step, or an embedded chat widget deflects support load and rescues conversions that would otherwise be lost to silent abandonment. The cheapest support ticket is the one the user answers themselves by clicking a link.

Severity rationale

Low because most users complete onboarding without needing help, but the absence amplifies churn and support cost for the subset that gets stuck.

Remediation

Add a persistent help affordance to the onboarding layout. Edit src/app/(app)/onboarding/layout.tsx to render a fixed-position "Need help?" button linking to the getting-started docs in a new tab, or embed a chat widget so users can ask questions without leaving the flow.

<div className="fixed bottom-4 right-4">
  <Button variant="outline" size="sm" asChild>
    <Link href="/docs/getting-started" target="_blank">Need help?</Link>
  </Button>
</div>

Detection

  • ID: saas-onboarding.onboarding-ux.help-accessible-during-onboarding

  • Severity: low

  • What to look for: Count all help access points on onboarding and signup screens: help icons, "?" buttons, documentation links, chat widgets (Intercom, Crisp, Chatwoot), "Need help?" links, or tooltips. Enumerate each.

  • Pass criteria: At least 1 help access point is visible on onboarding screens — either a persistent help button, a contextual tooltip on complex steps, a "Need help?" link, or a chat widget.

  • Fail criteria: No help access points are present anywhere on signup or onboarding screens. The only help available requires the user to navigate away from onboarding.

  • Skip (N/A) when: The application has no documentation, help center, or support channel of any kind.

  • Detail on fail: "No help access points found on signup or onboarding screens. Users who encounter questions during setup have no in-context way to get help."

  • Remediation: In your onboarding layout at src/app/(app)/onboarding/layout.tsx:

    <div className="fixed bottom-4 right-4">
  <Button variant="outline" size="sm" asChild>
    <Link href="/docs/getting-started" target="_blank">Need help?</Link>
  </Button>
</div>

Taxons

user-experience

History